Key Witness From Serial Gives First Interview, Offers Yet Another Timeline of Events

December 29, 2014 10:15 PM

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Jay Wilds, the key witness in the state of Maryland’s case against Adnan Syed, has given an exclusive interview to Natasha Vargas-Cooper of The Intercept. Syed’s conviction for the murder of Hae Min Lee was the subject of the This American Life spinoff podcast Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig, which aired this fall. Wilds declined Koenig’s requests to speak on the podcast, though the two did talk and she reported on that conversation. Koenig also tore holes in the timeline Wilds offered at trial and finished the podcast on a note of intense skepticism, saying that she would not have voted to convict Syed if she had been on the jury. Wilds told Vargas-Cooper he felt “unfairly depicted” by Koenig, and that he wants to correct the record. The first section of his multi-part interview appeared on The Intercept today.

In this new telling, Wilds cleaves to certain details from the podcast and alters others. He reiterates that he agreed to help Adnan bury Hae’s body because he feared getting in trouble for petty drug-dealing. He characterizes Adnan as “a little pompous, a little arrogant … really driven as far as a...